different between griffe vs griffs

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???f/
• Rhymes: -?f

Etymology 1

From French griffe (“claw”).

Noun

griffe (plural griffes)

1. A claw-like ornament at the base of a column.
   • 2013, Russell Sturgis, Francis A. Davis, Sturgis' Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture and Building: An Unabridged Reprint of the 1901-2 Edition, Courier Corporation (?ISBN), page 323:

     The primary use of this is to give the column a broader base and to diminish the amount of the cutting away of the solid stone. The griffe, however, is often used for elaborate ornamentation, being carved into vegetable or even animal form.

Etymology 2

From Cajun French (in period American English usage) and from general French griffe (in reference to such people in e.g. Haiti), perhaps from (American) Spanish grifo (supposedly "curly-haired").

Noun

griffe (plural griffes)

1. (chiefly US, dialectal, dated or historical) A person of mixed (black and white) race, especially the offspring of a mulatto (person of mixed black and white ancestry) and a person of fully black ancestry.
   • 2017, Terry Rey, The Priest and the Prophetess: Abbé Ouvière, Romaine Rivière, and the Revolutionary Atlantic World, Oxford University Press (?ISBN):

     Saint-Domingue's complex system of racial classification allowed for no fewer than eight “mixed” racial parental combinations that could produce a griffe, as infamously calculated by Moreau.

Alternative forms

• grif

Coordinate terms

• (person of mixed race): see list in mulatto

References

• griffe in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

French

Etymology

From Middle French griffe, either deverbal from griffer, which see, or through an unattested Old French noun from Old High German grif, from Proto-Germanic *gripiz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??if/

Noun

griffe f (plural griffes)

1. claw

2. talon
3. scratch mark
4. (figuratively) signature (characteristic mark, e.g. of an artist)

5. (by extension) brand, designer label (especially fashion)

Descendants

• ? Italian: griffe
• ? Portuguese: griffe, grife

Verb

griffe

1. first-person singular present indicative of griffer
2. third-person singular present indicative of griffer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of griffer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of griffer
5. second-person singular imperative of griffer

Further reading

• “griffe” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

German

Verb

griffe

1. first/third-person singular subjunctive II of greifen

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from French griffe.

Noun

griffe f (invariable)

1. designer label

Noun

griffe f

1. plural of griffa

English

Noun

griffs

1. plural of griff